Bayer Leverkusen and Shakhtar Donetsk are experienced, well-organised sides, not the cannon fodder against whom United have been drawn in previous years, while Real Sociedad, despite losing star midfielder Asier Illarramendi and boss Philippe Montanier, remain a strong unit.

Their impressive 4-0 aggregate victory over Lyon, to make it through to the group stage, showed their quality and, as such, United cannot afford to take lightly any of their Group A opponents, something of which they have been guilty in the past, to their cost.

Moyes, who failed to get through to the group stage with Everton in 2005, makes his Champions League debut tonight as United take on Leverkusen, who finished third in the Bundelsliga last season and are managed by former Liverpool defender Sami Hyypia, at Old Trafford.

With a tricky trip to the Ukraine to face Donetsk up next for United, Moyes and his players will not want to go there with anything less than three points, which means nothing less than a win will do under the floodlights at the Theatre of Dreams.

United have not scored in open play since the first day of the Premier League season at Swansea and that, coupled with a poor transfer window, in which his former Everton charge Marouane Fellaini was the only arrival, has increased the pressure on Moyes.

Moyes always knew he was going to be up against it in the first few weeks of the season, with the fixture list handing him testing trips to Liverpool and Manchester City, as well as a visit from Chelsea, in his opening five games in charge of United.

That United have failed to navigate two of those games with any degree of conviction, drawing at home to Chelsea and losing away to Liverpool, has served only to intensify the scrutiny under which Moyes finds himself having succeeded Sir Alex Ferguson.

That is why this week is assuming such significance for Moyes so early on in his Old Trafford tenure, starting with tonight's encounter against Leverkusen, followed by Sunday's trip across Manchester to face local and title rivals City.

United may not have made the flying start they would have liked under Moyes, but their shortcomings have been masked by the failings of their title rivals, with City losing at Cardiff and drawing at Stoke, and Chelsea slumping to a shock defeat at Everton.

As such, United's flaky start has not been as damaging as it could have been, but Moyes will want his side to turn on the style tonight and win convincingly against Leverkusen, to enable them to go into Sunday's derby showdown on a high.

In Fellaini, United would appear to have the midfield enforcer they have lacked in recent seasons, which has arguably cost them in Europe, but they still lack a creative midfielder with the guile to undo defences at the very highest level.

United's pursuit of Cesc Fabregas, Thiago Alcantara and Ander Herrera confirmed Moyes feels he needs a player of that ilk, and it remains to be seen whether the failure to address that in the transfer window comes back to haunt them.

Up next: Manuel Pellegrini will provide a stiff test to Manchester United (Image: Getty)

A familiar gripe of Ferguson during his United reign was the number of times his side faced away fixtures immediately after themselves being away on Champions League duty.

This season, United face visits to Sunderland and Tottenham after trips to Donetsk and Leverkusen, hosting Arsenal at Old Trafford after their penultimate away game of the group stage, to Sociedad.

In total, United face four away games immediately after Champions League commitments this season, while Arsenal find themselves worse off, playing away from home domestically after five of their six Champions League fixtures.

Contrast that with City, who face two away games after European duty and Chelsea, who face one away, and it is easy to see Moyes potentially seizing on the conspiracy theories of his predecessor.

Moyes may buy into the thoughts espoused by Ferguson, namely that the football authorities deliberately try to make life harder for United because of their success and standing.

Indeed, Moyes has already made public his annoyance at the tough Premier League start United were handed this season, suggesting they were being penalised for winning the title so comfortably last season.

Moyes has accepted United's group stage draw as a fair, albeit tough, one and knows progression to the knockout stage is the very least required at a club determined to re-establish itself among Europe's elite after two disappointing Champions League campaigns.